In the wood product industry, prices can vary on a daily basis. Accordingly, it is of importance for a wood product producer to optimize its production based on the current prices. More specifically, the pricing of the wood product can vary depending of its dimensions (e.g. length) and quality. Although greater length of wood products is typically associated with greater pricing, the presence of a defect along a length of the wood product can negatively affect the quality level of the product as a whole. Accordingly, in some instances, it is preferable to trim the defect off in a manner to obtain a shorter wood product of a greater quality, for instance.
Considering that, in a typical production line, the wood products are moved at a speed that can range between 366 m/min (1200 ft./min) and 610 m/min (2000 ft./min), these decisions have to be taken in an automated manner.
Accordingly, an example of a production line can include one or more conveyors for moving, for instance, wood products from a wood product optimizer to a wood product trimmer (simply referred to as “the optimizer” and “the trimmer”). The optimizer is generally configured to scan successive ones of the wood products, to decide whether or not and how to trim each wood product based on the current prices and to generate optimization data that the trimmer can use as cutting instructions on how to trim the wood product.
To ensure that given optimization data be used for a corresponding wood product, the typical production line generally includes a wood tracker. An example of such a wood tracker is provided in Canadian Patent Application No. 2 245 412 A1. For instance, this wood tracker applies an information mark pattern indicative of the optimization data on each wood product following scanning by the optimizer using upper and lower pairs of luminescent ink-jet devices. Prior to arriving to the trimmer, the wood tracker uses optical sensing devices each having luminescence inducing light source to read the information mark pattern and generates an output signal based on the reading of the optical sensing devices. The output signal is then used by the trimmer as cutting instructions to trim the wood product in accordance with its optimization data.
Although existing wood trackers were satisfactory to a certain degree, there always remains room for improvement.